1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION:
This invention pertains to a powered method of and apparatus for lifting a boat.
2. THE PRIOR ART
Boat lifts for runabouts, ski boats, fishing boats, pontoon boats and most boats of trailerable size are quite well known and extensively used. These boat lifts are available from several sources and have several types of mechanical mechanisms to raise a boat.
A typical boat lift has a frame with four upright corner posts and a vertically movable platform or pair of cross beams suspended by the frame. A manual crank mechanism is provided to raise and lower the platform while the boat is on the platform.
Boats keep getting bigger and better with I/O motor/drives becoming more and more popular. These boats are valuable and need to be stored in a boat lift. These boats are trending bigger and heavier and the population of boat users is getting older. The effort required to manually raise boat lifts is becoming relatively greater and, in many cases, too much. The effort required to operate many boat lifts is beyond the physical capabilities of kids, women, handicapped and seniors.
A typical prior art and extensively commercialized boat lift is shown in B. L. Godbersen's U.S. Pat. Re. No. 32,118. As this patent shows, a typical boat lift is manually powered by rotation of a large wheel, in the range of three to four feet in diameter. This is typical of the vast majority of boat lifts.
An electric power drive is commercially available for the Godbersen boat lift. This drive has an 115VAC electric motor connected through a gearbox to an elastomeric traction drive wheel. This drive mounts on the Godbersen lift adjacent the bottom of the actuation wheel and frictionally engages and drives the wheel. This device is dedicated to and operative only with Godbersen boat lifts. This particular lift drive has a "dead-man" driving connection and must manually be held against the lift actuator wheel. This device will raise the lift only and will not lower the lift. The lift must be manually lowered. 115VAC power on or near the motor and out on the dock is dangerous stuff. It also requires power lines from an on-shore power source.